The city of Harahan will officially observe the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday for the first time this year. City Council members voted unanimously in December to add the Jan. 16 celebration of the noted civil rights leader to the list of the city’s approved paid holidays for regular, full-time employees.

The city of Harahan will observe Martin Luther King Day as a city holiday for the first time. The holiday is month.

“I would think we’re the last ones in Jefferson Parish that didn’t recognize Dr. King’s birthday. We’re probably one of the last in the state,” said former Harahan Councilman and Jefferson Parish Councilman-elect Paul Johnston, who sponsored the ordinance at the request of Mayor Vinny Mosca.

Mosca said he proposed the ordinance after receiving a request from the Rev. Byron Clay. Clay, of Kenner, has served as the vice president and interim president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the civil rights organization founded by King. Clay was excited to hear about the holiday’s approval.

“I want to commend and applaud the mayor and the council and the good people of Harahan,” he said.

President Ronald Reagan in 1983 signed the bill establishing the third Monday of each January as Martin Luther King Jr. Day. It was first observed as a federal holiday in 1986. It was optional in the state of Louisiana — though state governors declared the day a holiday almost every year — until 2004, when the Legislature made it an official state holiday.

Mosca said the matter just never made it to the council agenda over the years.

“Nobody ever brought it up,” Johnston said.

Clay said he has made the request to city representatives in the past, but he really tried to appeal to Mosca’s sense of right a few months ago when he asked again.

“I told him the city of Harahan is not only a beautiful city and a safe city, but you have some really good, fair-minded people there,” Clay recalled. “Just give it a chance. I believe in my heart that the people of Harahan will receive it openly.”